Philip Sherwell

New York:The Mormon founder Joseph Smith married as many as 40 women, including a 14-year-old girl, church leaders have acknowledged for the first time in a surprising disclosure about their most important prophet.

Although the Mormon Church was closely associated with polygamy during its first decades, its teachings had previously portrayed Smith as happily married to one woman. But with increasing speculation circulating on the internet about his marital history, the church hierarchy revealed the truth in an essay posted on its website.

Polygamy strained relations: A statue of the Mormon religion's founder and prophet Joseph Smith with his first wife, Emma, at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Photo: New York Times

The disclosure shocked many Mormons raised on stories of the life of Smith, the young farm worker and treasure hunter who in the late 1820s discovered inscribed golden plates, the Book of Mormon, buried in upstate New York.

The book narrated the history of an ancient Judaeo-Christian people in North America visited by Jesus Christ - the birth story of the Mormon movement. On the subject of Smith's wives, the essay notes that "careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40".

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the official name for the Mormons, disavowed plural marriage in 1890 under pressure from the US government after polygamists were jailed and their assets seized.

Their home territory of Utah was granted statehood as part of the deal.

According to the essay, Smith was a reluctant polygamist but relented under the threats of an angel which "came with a drawn sword, threatening Joseph with destruction unless he went forward and obeyed the commandment fully".